Of Starry Pine
by libra96
Summary: In the time before the stars had opened their eyes, and the wind could speak in the whispered tones of wind chimes, an accident of magic and fate came about. The creature of the void, the dooming tapestry, and the Guardians, unaware of their destiny.
1. Introduction

**Thank you so much for opening up this story and devoting some of your time to read it. I hope you find this worth it.**

**Disclaimer: All of Gravity Falls belongs to Alex Hirsh and Disney**

Intro

In the time before the stars had opened their eyes, and the wind could speak in the whispered tones of wind chimes, the earth was inhabited by men who could see the future as clearly as their reflection and fairy queens kept courts of gnomes, sprites, and all manner of creatures forgotten to time and history for there are no known written records of this time. There were the mortals of the earth, but they were not in as plentiful in number as they are today (one had more a chance to be born something else). Residing over this age were the Beings divided into two distinct groups, the Recorders and the Weavers, to make the whole. The Recorders were tasked with the duty of preserving all the knowledge and history of the creatures below so that, even with no written records, the days of that time may be remembered in the heavens. The Weavers used the threads of time to form the tapestries of fate. Every event to ever occur or come about has been depicted in the millions of tapestries the Weavers made; if you had ever wondered where prophecies came from, wonder no longer.

It was in this time before, that an ancient accident of magic and fate came about. None of the Recorders Thought or the Weavers of Life could ever quite figure out how it happened or why (for this incident was beyond them all), but one day the dark vastness of space spat out a strange and deceitful creature, which not even the Man on the Moon could control. It played tricks and giggled lies and learned how to escape the authority of the Beings with such disturbing quickness and dexterity that it soon seemed that nothing could prevent It from doing whatever it wanted and suffering no lasting consequence. However, the Beings eventually began to ignore It, for in the day before the glittering stars and the whispering wind, these beings were in a higher place beyond the mortals of the world below and knew the creature could cause no real harm as long as It was kept from them. Therefore, for a time, there was a temporary sense of peace between the creature and the Beings.

It was well known among the beings that a day would come when the Weavers would run out of thread, and when this occurred, the Beings would know their time was drawing to a close and the time of the mortals would come. So when the day came when the Weavers found they only had enough thread for one final tapestry, the Beings felt a resigned contentedness and there would have been no further issue if not for the nature of the last tapestry. It was a thing of nightmare, dyed in blood and silently screaming. Fire, death, enslavement, a burning tree, and at the top, surveying all, was a version of the creature the Beings had never seen. Horrified at what it meant, and feeling their time running out for coming up with a solution, they held a desperate meeting with all celestial beings which included a very miffed Man on the Moon who had been constantly annoyed by the creature and constantly ignored and was now feeling very self-righteous. The Beings were dying and knew they must ensure, since the creature could not be controlled, they must try to keep it contained. There was a place known to the Recorders, a place between the real world and the imagined where strange things dwelled, not quite seen. It was decided to banish the creature to this in-between world, where It could roam once It escaped to the land of the mortals after the Beings were gone and be long delayed in interacting with them. Then came the though from the Beings that perhaps the creature could try to escape back to the dark void It came from and find a place in the Elsewhere to torment. It was then decided to wake the stars, points of purity so true they shed a never-ending light. They were too numerous in number to count and were scattered everywhere there was darkness in the heavens, so in the heavens, so in this way, they effectively caged the creature of darkness.

Finally, there came the issue of what could be done for when the time of the last tapestry came to pass for it was indeed inevitable. It was decided two Guardians would be sent to save them all from the creature. It would be weakened from all its years of solitude and age and the Beings would provide these Guardians with the means to combat it. These Guardians would be a mortal Recorder and Weaver, they would be opposite to one another as they would be alike; they would compliment each other and combat each other. One would have a mind like the sky and the other with feet like the roots of a tree. Each would also be given a star for a heart, the heart of one a wish of light and the other, dependable and bright, steady and ancient. A falling star and a piece of a shining picture would lie in their chests. They would be prepared and armed, filled with purity, ready to face the darkness and, perhaps, save their kind, but they knew the daemon would be cunning and sly and attempt to deceive them. The daemon would know that, while together they were unstoppable, apart they were vulnerable. Split the whole and devour the half and the whole would never be again. He would find the weaknesses of the Guardians and exploit them for he would understand the threat they would pose to his plan, and seek to control the weak link. How they would fare this was, ultimately, left to them.

And so it was done as it had been said, the time of the Beings came to an end and the age of the mortals came with them all blissfully unaware the age before had ever existed at all. Although the creature now and then was able to escape the in-between world by deals with foolish mortals and run amok among the human, he could never stay for long. He was also never able to retreat back to the void, trapped as he was by the stars whose pure light burned him and disturbed his mind. Years were used and recorded, some thing remembered, many not (and some stolen) until the time of the tapestry drew near. Then the Guardians came, with o more fanfare than most with a happy mother and proud father, and with no hint of what large responsibility lay on their tiny shoulders. Two star-filled creatures born of a woman, the last hope of their kind, a boy, the mark of knowledge on his brow, and a girl that flew in a falling stream of light and wonder and madness. On the day they were plucked from the sky the very Earth shivered, the air crackled, and two halves of one man found no sleep, one locked in the darkness of sharp memories, and the other lost in a place beyond. So it began.


	2. Tourist Trapped

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls**

When he had first laid eyes on the twins Soos had immediately been struck with the impression that these two children made up one whole entity. It wasn't as if he had never seen twins before (now and then tourists would wander in the Mystery Shack with their identical children), but even first laying his eyes on the two, he knew there was something special about them. Soos had been the one to pick the pair up from the bus stop since on the day they arrived Stan had been held up by some straggling customers and had sent Soos so the kids wouldn't think they had been abandoned. He had pulled up in his beloved old clunker pick-up and had spotted the two small figures huddled on a nearby bench surrounded by a summer worth of luggage. He parked a little ways away from where they sat and, unable to resist his curiosity (they _were_ Mr. Pines' relatives after all), and took a moment to study them.

Aside from the obvious similarities that came naturally from their shared DNA (brown hair and eyes with more or less the same facial structure), Soos noticed some glaring diffuses between the two. The girl had impossibly wide glittering eyes that seemed to be trying to see everything at once. The joyful grin she was displaying gave him an eyeful of silver braces, and underneath her brightly colored sweater (in the summer?) she was practically trembling with excitement. Looking at the girl as a whole Soos knew he would have a mental image ready for the next time someone used the description "ball-of-energy" because this girl was the living definition. Unlike his sister, the boy had a slightly guarded expression on his face while observing his surroundings with his expression partially hidden by a cap he had firmly jammed on his head. The boy was also dressed more practically for the weather with a short-sleeved t-shirt, vest, and shorts, and seemed _much_ less eager than his sister for something to happen. In fact, although Soos wouldn't have described the boy's demeanor as anxious it was definitely weary, as though he fully expected something unpleasant to happen (like be abandoned at the bus stop for example). Yet, even as Soos observed all of these differences, and even though he hadn't spoken to them yet, Soos could not imagine one without the other without getting the feeling of an incomplete picture.

The way the boy was sitting, with his knees pointed towards his sister with his gaze off to the side, gave off a very protective vibe, as though he was warding off all the negative sides of the world so they wouldn't touch the pure positive emotions radiating from the girl next to him. The girl in return, was clutching her brothers hand tightly and talking at a break-neck pace (about what Soos could only guess) and gave off a protective vide as well but it was different. It was though she was protecting the boy from his own negative inclinations by bombarding him with as much positive energy as possible, and he didn't seem to mind.

Driving back to the Shack with the Pines twins had been an adventure all on its own once he managed to load the last of their luggage into his truck. Soos quickly learned from the girl that their names were Dipper and, well he heard Maple, but later understood her name was Mabel and was then bombarded by said girl with all kinds of questions ranging from about the town, the Mystery Shack, their Great Uncle Stanford (which Soos was happy to answer when he could get a word in edgewise) to, for some reason, his opinion on which boys in the town were the cutest (an observation he, unfortunately, had not made). Dipper (that was a unique nickname to be sure) didn't say much at all except a greeting when climbing into the truck. He simply sat next to his sister and observed his surroundings (and Soos), with a very keen eye that seemed to miss nothing. It was really strange the way the kid was staring at him. Soos felt it was like he was trying to solve the mystery of who Soos was just by looking at him and it was a bit unnerving. From what he could tell the two were a balance for each other, the head and the heart, in two separate bodies, and viewing them together made them seem kind of untouchable. It was odd, like, he was thinking about them like they were characters from an epic sci-fi novel or from one of his videogames but there it was, the dudes just gave him that impression.

He kept an eye on the two over the next couple of weeks as they settled in and (much to their chagrin) took up shifts at the Mystery Shack with their Gruncle's other employees. Dipper began to talk more and, once he had been able to explore the Shack and get his bearings, began to more boldly voice his thoughts and ideas. To Soos' surprise, he and Dipper began to grow close, like something of an older/younger cousin relationship Soos had never had with his own. They developed a mutual respect for each other with Dipper often asking Soos for advice about where to go and where to avoid around the Mystery Shack as well as the town, along with questions about the various townspeople that would wander in occasionally. Mabel (Maple) was a blessing that lit most of the previously shady corners of his life and filled them with silver smiles, scratch-n-sniff stickers, and an infectious happiness. Soos almost immediately understood Dipper's fierce protectiveness of his sister once he really began to know her. The girl held her own no doubt, but something in him wanted to shield her optimism and glee from anything that might snuff it out.

…

The day the twins had their fight Soos had been pondering the strangeness that was the town of Gravity Falls, Oregon more than usual. Granted, when you grew up there, the occasional oddities began to slip by unnoticed as they became just a part of daily life, but Dipper's questions had dragged his awareness of it all back to the surface.

Zombies… Soos had to admit he had not been expect zombies when he walked into the room Dipper occupied, so engulfed in his theories and talking aloud he had not noticed Soos until he spoke. Soos believed it of course, there _were_ all kinds of creatures wandering around (don't you try to tell him the mailman wasn't a werewolf) and the boy he had seen Mabel with certainly _looked_ like a zombie with his deathly pale skin and sunken eyes. However, just like Soos felt the need to protect Mabel he also felt the need to protect Dipper. It was a different sort of protection that Dipper needed, not one hat preserved optimism but one that curbed his cynicism. One thing that Soos had learned about the little dude over the past few weeks was that the guy HATED it when he wasn't taken seriously. He would slip into the frame of mind that everyone was aggressively trying to prove him wrong and that he had to fight the world alone and without Mabel in place to drag him out of it, Soos knew he had to tread carefully. Soos could almost see the kid age during these occasions and it hurt Soos more than he had expected to see the kid wilt like that, so when Dipper had presented his theory, Soos had to figure out hoe to encourage him without allowing him to become embarrassed by his lack of evidence and suggested maybe Dipper should find some before sharing his theory with his sister.

Dipper had gone off after Soos had finished unclogging the toilet, but after he finished he noticed something changed about the atmosphere, an odd feeling (fractured) that put him on edge and had wondered in the kitchen to question Mr. Pines about it.

"Oh the kids just had an argument", Mr. Pines had grunted while examining the contents of the fridge.

"I'm sure they'll get over it soon. Hey, you finish unclogging the toilet yet?".

Soos had caught the boy before heading in the Mystery Shack golf cart with a determined look in his eyes and he immediately knew what was up. He armed the kid cause hey, Piñatas were no joke, but he still felt the uneasy presence of the twins fight lingering in the air and in his mind.

The Zombie thing must have turned out all right because the next day the feeling was gone and Soos could breath again. The twins were talking to each other and seemed somehow closer (if that was possible), as if their adventure had strengthened their bond, and Dipper was even wearing a brand new Mystery Shack cap with a pine tree proudly displayed on its front.

Looking at the twins in the gift shop that morning, making jokes with each other while Mr. Pines (fondly) rolled his eyes and Wendy giggled at their antics Soos felt a whole he hadn't realize was in in his life fill up (which was strange considering he knew very well what those felt like) and knew with a sudden clarity that those two belonged there. They completed the picture, this small rag-tag family in the making, and with the same clarity knew that he would do just about anything to keep them safe, just for a chance to be near them and the complete world they created.


	3. The Gobblewonker

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls**

**Big thanks to my Beta readers Mel and Kinzie!**

Those bratty ingrates! Sure, he could understand that maybe fishing with your great-uncle wasn't the most 'exciting' thing in the world to do as a kid but come on; he had even brought the joke book! But no, those traitors had jumped ship (literally) and went on some monster hunt with Soos (Soos of all people!) leaving him to row awkwardly row from person to person, getting into quite a bit of trouble in the process. Stanford Pines had been perfectly ready to be bitter the whole day and give the twins a cold shoulder when they returned. However, against his will, and especially after seeing those kids with their grandpa fishing nearby, he found himself only a little bit angry and mostly just hurt.

Stan had never had never had any kids of his own, that time of his life having been spent trying to make money and getting into serious trouble. He had a little regret about it and sometimes he felt a whole in his life that was left by the absence but he had simply come to accept that that was just how his life had turned out. Really, his days were often too busy for him to think about it often, and he was honestly content; okay a little grouchy but really he was just fine! At least, he had been, until he got blind-sided by his great niece and nephew.

He had not been thrilled to say the least when he got roped into watching the twins; something about the kids needing to get to know him while there was still time yadda yadda he wasn't dying _yet_. He had enough on his plate with running a business and his…other…project (not like that had been going anywhere for the past 30 years) without having to play babysitter. He could also see the kids were feeling similarly miffed (at least the boy was, the other one never seemed to stop smiling) about having to spend their entire summer in a little town with a relative they barely knew.

Something had happened though, after Mabel had broken up with her weirdo boyfriend for a day, when the twins had begun to baffle him. They had been spending ore time together and if they had moved _like_ a single unit before, they _were_ a single unit bow. They would glance up at him when they thought he wasn't paying attention with gleaming eyes as though they both knew a wonderful secret that the rest of the world was no privy to. It was in these moments he surprised himself, finding that the rest of the world it seemed only they could see, and be someone they wanted to include. He genuinely wanted Mabel to challenge him to cards, and talks his ear off while he was restocking the gift shop. He genuinely wanted Dipper to spout some of the bizarre (and sometimes eerily familiar) theories he would come up with around him and wanted to argue with him about whether or not he could out-sleuth that stupid duck from TV, and he didn't know what to do with the feelings. He had shaken it off the first few times (not the time to get sentimental Stanford), but the more he saw them the stringer the feeling became. That was the real reason why he had decided to take them out fishing. It wasn't exciting, but he had wanted to "test the waters" so to speak and see if he was welcome to get closer to them and their world, which he so desperately wanted to understand.

Now, he guessed he had his answer, a big ol' 'No way Jose' and a door slammed in his face. Stan had never thought there would be a day when he was jealous of Soos, but even if he would never say it aloud (they'd never make him!) he had to admit that he was, because Soos was now glimpsing some of that beautiful secret that Stan, their Uncle, could not. It was that twin duality, how something would always connect them no matter how far they were from each other that drew him to them the most. Lord knew it had been ages since he had last felt it so strongly.

He looked out over the still lake, now turning the color of rust as the sun began to descend, and debated on whether or not to just return to the Shack and leave Soos to take the kids back home because just sitting here for so long was making him _way_ to introspective. There wasn't anything he needed to worry about with the monster, Fiddleford was… well he had quite a mind but it was long broken. There was no lake monster.

He was about to turn around and head to shore when he heard a stuttering motor and saw Soos' wrecked (What? No. Better not to ask) boat pull up next to his. There they were, wearing matching expressions of kindness and remorse with a pinch of hope, and sporting the finishing hats he had given to them asking to join him. He had caved almost immediately (of course he had put up a _little_ fuss but yeah) and soon found himself in a piece of their hidden world filled with golden light reflecting off water, laughter, and warmth he hadn't known in so long. Looking at their sun-kissed faces and listening to them tease him about his terrible jokes (okay they _were_ bad), he wondered at how his whole plan had been flipped. Instead of _him_ asking _them_ if he was welcome, _they_ were asking _him_ if he still wanted to be. How was he going to be able to let them go?


	4. Headhunters

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls**

**Thanks to my Beta readers Mel, Kinzie, and Natalie**

Sheriff Blubbs had seen a lot of odd things in the town he watched. Honestly you couldn't live in Gravity Falls and not see _something_ now and then but then last week had certainly now and then but this last week had certainly been one of the strangest that he could remember. First it was the almost riot that Stanford Pines had almost caused at the re-opening of his wax museum due to the lack of promised free pizza with attendance. Then, that same night, he and his partner, Deputy Durland, were called to Mr. Pines strange abode to investigate the beheading of Pines' wax replica.

Now, Robert Blubbs was used to strange and wacky crimes, and really, Gravity Falls never saw any _real_ crimes beyond occasional vandalism and petty theft, so believe it or not he took the time to honestly examine the crime scene. Here's what he came up with… a cold case. Honestly, it was a beheaded wax figure, which meant no fingerprints, no blood, and most of all this wasn't a real causality. Blubbs would have suggested Mr. Pines get some extra security because he could very well have been the intended target, but he knew that man well enough to know he wouldn't do anything that cost him extra money. Well, if the fool wanted to take a chance and risk his _real _neck so be it. Honestly, that man should be more careful, especially now that he was watching those kids.

Speaking of them, that boy had seemed like something else! How old was he ten? Eleven? He really thought he could play detective? The Sheriff had laughed but in the darker spaces inside him, he remembered every city cop that had looked down on him for being from a small town and felt an unfair loathing towards the kid. Blubbs knew it was wrong and the boy hadn't really done anything but something had made him lash out at the boy with teasing and demeaning words and with Durland adding with chants of 'city boy'. He had expected to see the child get angry and maybe even fight back, but instead the kid just kind of wilted and Blubbs suddenly felt like a first class bummer. He didn't really want to hurt the kid, so in the end he just told him to stay out of police business and had gone off to do more important things (a whole cantaloupe!), but the whole night he couldn't shake the feeling that he had kicked a brown haired, brown eyed, puppy.

Robert Blubbs had grown up in Boston, full of loud people, loud cars, and loud crimes. Blubbs had never known his father and while his single mother had worked hard so he and his two brothers were provided with what they needed, money was never plentiful and they hadn't lived in the best neighborhood. He reflected that it was probably growing up in a neighborhood close to others where so dangerous that if you walked too fast down the street you risked getting shot that had driven him to join the police force. He had seen how hard the kids in those places felt their surroundings and the chains around their futures and wanted to do something about it all. There was a growing, burning frustration in his chest driving him to act. However, once he joined, he found the amount of crime taking place seemed too overwhelming to put a dent in it. There were so many issues that contributed to the causation of crimes that he found he could do little to nothing about. He also found that the police force was not always the agent of rightness that he had seen it as but that it was only as good as the people that made it up. He saw some terrible things from both the communities he patrolled and his own comrades that caused him to seriously question the worth of the human race and why should he care enough to bother trying to fix what couldn't be fixed. He was just one man.

For twenty years, Blubbs had lived in a state of half apathy half despair. He began to shut out the world, his friends, his family, and afraid that his image of his loved ones as genuinely good people would be tarnished if he sent too much time with them and only saw their faults. He began to lose the hope that there was anything true in this world. Then, his mother had died, snapping him out of his foggy state with the sharp pain of losing her and with shame that he had lost so much time with her because he had been afraid and hid like a coward. At her funeral he had spent more time with his brothers than he had in years and found that he didn't know what to say to them and they didn't know who he was anymore. He had spent so much time away in his dark world that he had missed them and what they could have given him in hope and love and now, watching them bid their mother farewell on that frozen and gray morning, he realized he could not get it back. For the first time, he was truly aware of the crushing weight of his self-induced isolation.

It was then that Blubbs decided he needed to leave the city, his job, the state, everything, he just couldn't stay there anymore it was killing him. So, after the next few weeks Blubbs had handed in his resignation and steadily worked and travelled his way across the country to the opposite coast and one day, found himself in Gravity Falls, Oregon. It was small and beautiful but he hadn't thought much of it, that was, until he met the people who lived there. They were a bit odd, and very predictable, but in them he found the thing he had been desperately searching for; hope. These people were genuine, and these people cared about each other and he felt as though he had finally found a place that could keep him going. A place that could remind him in case he forgot. He became the Sheriff of the town soon after deciding to stay and met his Deputy, who was absolutely the best thing to ever happen to him, filling up a hole in his heart he didn't know needed filling.

Now, here he was, recalling the fresh and eager look on Dipper Pines' face, full of belief that he could make a difference and it was all so achingly familiar. The kid needed to understand that he was just one person and that one person couldn't change the world no matter what anyone told you. That was ultimately why he had decided to go with the kid when he had accused Toby as the culprit. The Sheriff knew Toy was too much of a freak to do something that violent but as much as it would humiliate the boy to be wrong; this was an important lesson to learn. He was just one person.

Or was he?

Blubbs had not been expecting the boy's sister to be so honestly and enthusiastically involved in her brothers "investigation". He had heard about joining him as he questioned his "suspects" helping and encouraging him the whole time. Blubbs, having siblings of his own, was used to the idea of teasing, bickering, and competition, but not used to the picture he was given by those two. She was right behind Dipper the whole time he was disproven and never once acted ashamed for having sided with him. Her support had kept Dipper from wilting like he had the night Blubbs been unfairly nasty to him. They had both dejectedly left the news office with their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, giving Blubbs the impression of defeated troops, supporting each other as retreated.

One thing Blubbs had never lost belief in was love, because it was always somewhere inside of him. There was the love he had felt for his mother, the love he still felt for his distant brothers, and the special love he felt for Durland for which he had no label and felt no need for. He was familiar with love ad thought it the element that truly tied a family together. Yet, while observing the Pines twins, he felt like there was a strong bond between them that would remain, even if the two hated each other and Blubbs didn't know what to make of them.

When Blubbs had driven by the Mystery Shack the next morning he ready to drive his point home to the boy one last time. Instead, he had gotten the shock of Dipper proudly announcing that the case had been solved, giving him a glimpse of the missing wax head. This had resulted in Blubbs spitting out his coffee in poor Durland's face and getting a healthy burn from the scalding liquid. How on Earth had Pines done it? The case had gone cold and Pines had certainly been humiliated, but still he had solved the case. Wait… no… not him… _them_. The _both_ of them _together_. The realization had Blubbs floundering for a moment, how was it two could be that much different than one? Then, looking at his partner trying in vain to get coffee stains out of his uniform and all that he had observed last night, Robert decided that maybe Gravity Falls was giving him another hope. One person wasn't enough, but, Blubbs decided with a smile, maybe two were.


	5. The Hand That Rocks Mabel

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls. **

**Big thanks to my Beta Kinzichi! Sorry for the delay the last chapter of Of Journals and Boxing Gloves killed me but I'm back.**

The Hand That Rocks Mabel

Rage was a familiar emotion to Gideon Gleeful and one that he felt quite commonly. He felt anger when he had to put up with stupid people (which was most of the time), when there were nuts in his ice cream, and especially whenever he thought of Stanford Pines. However, there was one emotion he had not been familiar with that he turned into rage as a way to identify and manage it: heartbreak. Being ten years old it was understandable how he would have little experience with the bitter side of romance but that thought did nothing to sooth his jilted heart. He had been, and still was, completely convinced that she was supposed to be his.

….

Gideon may have had some tricks up his sleeve to draw in larger crowds but there was something that was very much real inside of him that allowed him to see things. These insights were never straightforward and often came in the form of dreams. Gideon had been marketed to the masses since he was a tiny baby, his father plastering the infants face on dozens of posters and billboards around the time advertising this and that. Once Bud Gleeful had realized that his son's dreams were more than average he had wasted no time in setting up a side business from his car sales with Gideon starring as a child psychic. After the first year of business, when he was about eight, Gideon took over the business on his own, his fathers inclination towards philanthropy seeming to have been passed down. He had used his devious little mind to think up clever lies to draw crowds in and his flamboyant, adorable, and observant traits to keep them coming. Lots of little lies surrounding a truth, wasn't that how true empires were built? With the development of his newest scheme involving the distribution of his hidden camera buttons, it certainly seemed like the kingdom he craved he would soon have and rule.

Then he had had the dream about _her_.

He had been floating in a velvet royal blue vacuum of space insubstantial but very much aware. He was always aware of when he was simply dreaming or experiencing something more, and suspended in the dark nothingness he knew he was having a vision. He searched through the blue, scouring his surroundings for anything that he could use or understand. He blinked, and after he opened his eyes he found that his surroundings had changed because suddenly, the void was filled with shining pinpricks clustered in countless numbers, many smeared together in the broad strokes of a paintbrush. He was floating in a bowl of starlight, shining with a vivid light that gently pushed all the surrounding darkness away. Gideon was attempting to piece together what it could all mean when his thoughts were interrupted by the soothing sound of wind chimes. He cast his metaphorical eyes upwards and there above him he saw, slowly descending towards him, was the most beautiful star Gideon had ever seen radiating light and warmth, driving back the emptiness around him. The closer the star got to him, the more he could make out a form in the center of the of the light and he desperately tried to move towards the star (hard to do in an anti-gravity environment), knowing somehow that he needed to see what the figure looked like. The star came to a halt directly in front of him.

It looked to be a girl a few years older than him, hair shining like copper with dark eyes warm like chocolate and inviting. She smiled at him and silver danced in her mouth. All around her the white light she produced turned into thread-like rainbows, every color imaginable tied to the tips of her fingers, a red string of fate tied around one of her pinkies. Despite his overwhelming awe at the beauty of the creature in front of him, Gideon was able to summon the motor skills to reach out his hand, unable to resist the burning temptation to touch her. She mirrored his movements with her own hand and laid her palm flat against his. Her skin was warm and he felt a tingling sensation, not unlike an electric current, travel from his hand to all the way up his arm. The star laughed, the silver of her mouth becoming her voice treating his ears to a precious metal sound and compelling him to laugh along with her infectious joy.

There was a tinkling sound that made itself known somewhere behind her, something more like the ringing tones of the of a music box than wind chimes. She did not acknowledge it but ceased her laugh and, with smile still full, moved her palm from his hand and placed it over his heart. Then the change began. Her smile melted off her face and the rainbow threads around her once more combined into a white light that seemed harsher than before. Her face was now frighteningly blank as she stared at him, her eyes now as hard as the wood of an oak as she kept her hand firmly in place. The warmth he had previously felt was suddenly sucked out of the air leaving him shivering, but after a moment, he felt a different agony of the Stars now burning hand pressed against his chest, leaving him feeling like his heart was touching a soldering iron. With a gasp, Gideon pulled away from her touch horrified and betrayed that she would hurt him when he adored her so.

She turned away from him then and began to fall slowly, as though she were sinking to the bottom of a pool, suddenly holding the hand of what seemed to be the figure of another star. It was bright, making the music box sounds, and also had a red string tied around his pinky. It was connected to the girl. Gideon reached out to try to recapture her but the light of her companion knocked him back, freezing him with the cold the blast produced. The force of it seemed to propel the two because the stars began to fall faster away from him, leaving behind stardust that fell in sheets like loose paper in the wind. Gideon tried to call for her to come back but found he could make no sound. He watched in mounting horror, as the rest of the stars seemed to melt away leaving him more alone than ever before.

When he had awoken from the dream, chest still stinging from the ghost of her hand, Gideon had sobbed for several hours, shaken and frightened at the future pain the dream promised. For the first time, Gideon wondered if he would be punished for his lies and began to feel the beginnings of guilt. It frightened him horribly.

It was because of this, that when Gideon had seen her a week after his dream sitting in the crowd at one of his shows at the Tent of Telepathy, he knew his life was about to change. She was not surrounded by light and the silver in her mouth turned out to be braces. Even still, her hair still shown like a new penny and her smile was the same welcoming grin. She was wearing a brightly colored sweater (making him think of the rainbow threads) that had her name spelled out across it. A name, his star had a name. Mabel.

As horrifying as his dream might have been; Gideon knew he wanted her, wanted the light and warmth to bring something wonderful to his dull world, and was ready to take. However, at the show he had also observed a skeptical looking boy who seemed to share her facial features and eyes and recognized him, immediately, for what he was; an obstacle. He also learned that she was related to that no good Stanford Pines. Honestly, how a star such as her could be related to that grump was beyond even Gideon's abilities of insight but he represented yet another obstacle between him and Mabel. Even so, he was determined to have her.

He had started small. He had gone to the Mystery Shack and had (discreetly of course) invited her to his dressing room for an afternoon of fashion, the whole time taking pleasure in watching her shine with joy and beauty. Dream or no dream this girl definitely had something celestial about her. The next day he had asked her out, and despite her obvious reluctance, he had pressured her into agreeing.

Gideon wasn't oblivious. He knew her feelings for him were not romantic, but he was convinced that given time (and enough wooing) her feelings would grow. He successfully manipulated her into going on a date after the first, and then a third each time turning the romance up. She shone a lot less on each progressive date but he didn't care as long as he had her with him. After all, bird that didn't sing still had its uses. He was determined that she would be his and everything seemed in place to obtain her, from the contract with Stanford Pines to the date at The Club.

Then, Dipper Pines happened.

Gideon had not properly met Mabel's brother and hadn't felt the desire to do so. After all, the boy was a skeptic, making him not only an obstacle between him and Mabel but also a threat to Gideon's business. He was far too curious for his own good. The boy walked up to him while he was waiting for Mabel at The Club, and awkwardly but firmly told Gideon that his sister would not be arriving that night and no longer wanted to date him. Then it was, that Gideon heard the mocking chimes of a music box and realized; this was the star attached to her that prevented Gideon from touching her and propelled her away. He should have seen it coming, her twin, of course! It didn't matter, this thing wasn't over yet, he could still get rid of the threat and obtain his star.

It had ended up being so simple. The boy was so eager to be listened to that he was willing to go to an abandoned warehouse at night and alone. There was always a hidden desperation in a person that would drive them to do things, and Gideon was a master of finding and exploiting them. Everything should have gone off without a hatch, just threaten the boy with the ruin of his family, but Dipper just _had_ to bring up his darling Mabel, spewing lies about how she didn't love him. He lost his composure then, using the power his journal had led him to silence Dipper's insolent mouth, throwing him around with the telekinetic-like magic his amulet provided.

Her brother put up a struggle but in the end, he was no match for Gideon's powers. Then the psychic, in an actually rare lapse of control used the magic he commanded to yank the boy's mouth open for the pair of scissors he had levitating towards the boy's tongue. He was never going to lie to him again.

Then, suddenly, his star was there and glowing in the night with her dark eyes shining and a determined look on her face. He had lost focus and dropped the scissors but somehow maintained a grip on Dipper. She had moved towards him with her hidden natural grace and confessed to him that her brother spoke true. She told him that she did not feel love for him but she still offered him friendship.

Gideon hated not getting what he wanted, which had made him very clever in finding out ways to get it anyway. Looking at Mabel's cautious yet hopeful expression he knew he needed to change tactics. Friends, they could start again and this time he would go slower, keeping her close and scaring away the competition until the time was right for him to claim her. By that time he was positive he would have her so infatuated that she would jump straight into his arms. His star, wanted to be his friend, smiling her special smile and with her hand on his chest.

Over his amulet.

Over his heart.

No.

He understood in the millisecond before it happened that not only was the nightmare part of his vision coming true, but also that she had well and truly betrayed him. She yanked his power away from him, her fury cold and sharp as she rebuked him for harming her brother, who, now free of the magic that had gripped him, openly mocked him for his weakness.

Later, Gideon wouldn't be able to give a proper reason for his actions, but all he could see was red and all he could think was that he couldn't let Dipper take his star away. He couldn't let the vision be complete. He dimly remembered tackling Dipper and the sound of breaking glass, but when his senses returned fully to him he found himself locked into a fight with the boy as they plummeted towards the ground. Gideon had knocked them both out one of the windows of his factory, which just so happened to be built on a cliff. He was also quickly realizing that, without his amulet, he had doomed them both and while he honestly had no issue with Dipper being splattered on the ground, he was not ready or willing to die.

Both boys screamed and shut theirs eyes as they wanted for the inevitable abrupt end to their fall. The end _was_ abrupt but not fatal, in fact, they weren't actually _touching_ the ground. They were suspended a few inches _above_ the ground alive and undamaged. How? What? They were both dropped the rest of the way to the ground and Gideon (after recovering from being dropped on his head) immediately look for the source of his salvation. When he found it, his heart almost stopped because there she was, holding his amulet encompassed by the ethereal blue light, floating in front of the full moon a look of righteous fury on her face.

How was this possible? It had taken him _months_ of practice before he could successfully levitate a glass of water, yet there she was, levitating all three of them at once on the first try. She descended, until she came to land in front of him and smashed his amulet (heart) on the ground at her feet, all his power fading into mist.

He had left them, swearing his vengeance on him and he would have it! _He_ had fallen to the Earth with Dipper, not his star. If his dream had been wrong there, it was wrong about her being out of his reach. He would not feel love anymore, it made him weak and vulnerable, but he would have her. It was time to consult his journal once more.


	6. The Inconveniencing

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls**

**I'd like to give a big thanks for all of you who have favorited, followed, and commented on my story you truly motivate me to continue. College finals were a struggle but I should be back to updating somewhat consistently. As always, all my thanks to my Beta Kinzichi!**

The Inconveniencing

Wendy had spent most of her life primarily surrounded by males. She was the only girl in a family of five, her mother having died in a car crash when she was the only two, leaving a man that was more brawn than brain to raise a little girl on his own. This wasn't to say that she had had a bad childhood. She was very much loved and always included in everything her brothers did, of excelling over them. She was taught that beautiful did not always mean delicate, that kind did not always mean submissive, and that feminine did not always mean prissy. She also indirectly taught by her lifestyle, that the only difference between a man and woman was a quirk of anatomy and that gender did not define what you could and couldn't do.

It had been a very strange transition for her when she had started school because suddenly, the world had become divided into groups of boys or girls. Girls liked dresses, dolls, and any variation of the color pink. Boys liked dirt, dinosaurs, and making fart noises. Poor Wendy had not found it easy to fit in with the girls since her favorite color was green and she preferred pants to a skirt and had had no luck with the boys who all thought she had cooties. She had eventually made some friends and even got a _best_ friend named Tambry who absolutely _loved_ to talk. Still, she wanted to wear to wear a tutu while playing soccer and didn't understand why no one else seemed to understand that desire.

Then her awkward years had come, giving her braces and acne and Tambry a cell phone that she couldn't seem to pull herself away from. It was during her preteen years that she became more aware of the lack of female figures in her life than ever before. Puberty was not easy, even less so for a girl that had no older woman they trust to discuss it with. That was when Tambry's mom had stepped in and helped Wendy to better navigate her turbulent years and, in doing so, became Wendy's main female figure. The clam and steady woman managed her sassy daughter and her wild friend with a hidden grace that few could have managed. Wendy would never know about the day her father had gone to Tambry's mother to thank her for all she had done with an unusual humility for the burly man, just as she didn't realize that, by the time she was thirteen the woman considered Wendy to be one of her own.

Wendy may have been a freak in her preteens but by fifteen she had definitely bloomed gifted with clear skin, brace free teeth, long red hair, a seemingly effortless confidence, and a sculpted physique from many summers at logging camp. It was then that she was introduced to a different kind of male interaction. Wendy never felt like she needed a boyfriend but after the first few, she found that she very much liked having one. The thing about Wendy's idea of dating was that to her, men were partners and friends and a boyfriend to her was all that except he was also especially nice to you and bought you things. She also found that she liked kissing and the few romantic explorations she'd had but she would eventually become bored after a while of the same guy and move on to another. It wasn't that she didn't like any of them because she totally did; they just ended up wanting to do the same things all the time while she was full of restless fire. She needed a guy who could keep her on her feet and she just hadn't found him (or her come to think of it) yet.

Yes, Wendy's life was filled with all kinds of guys but she had to admit that there was something different about Dipper Pines. True, she hadn't thought much of him when she had first seen him and his sister around the Shack, but after talking to him several times she noticed how different yet similar he was compared to all the other boys in town. He was a goofball and obviously uncomfortable in his prepubescent body, and his squeaky voice was pretty adorable and even though he tried to hide it, he obviously shared the syndrome of wanting to be as manly as possible in as little time as possible with the rest of the male species.

Once she had started hanging out with him though, she began to notice the hidden things about him, like, for example how he was able to become serious in a way that was rare for a growing boy. Wendy could barely get her brothers to do their homework with any seriousness, yet she had seen Dipper intensely reading through a ratty old journal, taking notes like his life depended on it and muttering to himself. She noticed that he had an ability to boil a situation down to its essentials and use the insight to effectively navigate a situation, like the time he had successfully talked down an angry customer that had been harassing her for a refund. She noticed that there was something secret and wonderful behind his eyes, something that he wasn't telling, and something that called to her inner fire. Something about him promised adventure and she itched at the chance.

She hadn't understood at the time, why she decided to let Dipper and Mabel come along with her friend group when the age gap between them was kind of awkward but as the night got going she certainly couldn't find any reason to regret it. Dipper was, after all, the one who climbed onto the roof of the Dusk and Dawn convenient store and made it inside to open the door for them. Who knew he could be hardcore? Then, while they got up to trouble in the abandoned store like any self-respecting teen would, he took everything in stride and after a while she began to notice the effect he was having on her friends. He made a full rotation in the group interacting with each teen and after he left them they seemed, well, more relaxed than before. Tambry began to glance up from her phone after he tampered with it to show her how her newest update worked, Robbie (who obviously didn't like Dipper) wore a smirk that seemed more genuine after Dipper discussed the pros and cons of the current popular hard rock albums with him, and now he was hanging out with Nate, Lee, and Thompson blowing hot dogs up in the microwave. Even weirder was that Wendy was positive that is Mabel wasn't…well…to be honest completely high of that crack candy (Aoesheba?) she would have the same effect on her friends just with more glitter. Then there was the way began Lee interacting with Dipper, because Lee was a guy that didn't let much get to him with his go-with-the-flow attitude, but out of nowhere he started treating Dipper like he was his little brother or something (Lee was an only child), running around with the kid on his shoulders making Dipper freak out that he was going to fall or fondly teasing him in a way she hadn't seen from him before. Somehow he just made things brighter, that fire she had seen in him was warming them quietly and subtly and she knew somehow that they had been in need of him.

Wendy knew she wasn't crushing on Dipper (although she was definitely fond of him at this point) but she had been flirted with enough times to be fully aware that he was hard-core crushing on her. It was actually kind of flattering and pretty adorable, but she found herself not letting him down immediately because (and she was more than a little ashamed to admit this, even if it was just to herself) she loved having his attention focused on her. Here was someone who literally brightened everyone's countenance and he wanted to impress _her_, she ate it up and didn't want it to end, her ego and confidence boosted by his inexperienced and harmless attraction. That fire of his called out to her like an old friend with his being warm and illuminating while hers was hot and volatile shooting out of her skull and staining her hair, and she wanted to be included in everything that fire drove him to do if it made her feel as happy as this night had. She had never craved the attention of a guy before but somehow, she found herself craving his.

Then, at the end of the night, just when she thought she had a firm grip on who Dipper was, he shocked her yet again, by charging straight up to a horrifying ghost that was possessing his sister and had cursed all of her friends to challenge it and she hadn't been brave enough to go after him. Wendy was definitely not used to being in a situation where she was so out of her element because bullies she could handle, brothers she could handle, heck even logging she had under her belt, but ghosts? What?! Nothing that had happened to her up to this point in her life had prepared her at all for this! But then Dipper, thinking he knew how to stop the teen-snatching chaos around them, had thrown caution to the wind and had run into the middle of the storm to try to save them all and he seemed, in that moment untouchable.

Once the dust had settled however and the day saved, her friends had wanted to know what had saved them and while sharing the story about the "Lamby Lamby" dance would have caused priceless expressions on her friends faces the vulnerable look he had given her, so different from in earlier steel and resolve, had made her pause. She swore this boy was going to give her whiplash from the way his whole countenance could change in the blink of an eye but thinking about it she had understood that having her convey the source of his humiliation would wound more than his pride and she didn't want to lose his trust (his attention) so she had revised. It was that moment that forced her to realize that while, yes, he acted mature for his age, and yes he was probably the bravest and craziest person she had ever met, he was a kid. An awkward, growing, sweaty kid who, against his will, still really cared what people though of him and that his fire was still so fragile. If a gust of wind blew too strong it might dim him until only embers remained or it might be fueled to the point where he burned to ash. In her mind, she began to draw a clear difference between Dipper and Mabel. While Mabel was bright and loud, a lightening strike or a camera flash, Dipper glowed steadily but dimmer, a single candle in a dark room or the entirety of a sunset. She was bright while he was steady; she was in the spotlight while he happily stood behind her. It was harder to distinguish his light from hers (and tonight it had been mostly him they interacted with so she had been able to see) but once you did you never wanted to lose it.

She looked out of the window of Thompsons' van as he drove her home after they had dropped Dipper and Mabel off at the Mystery Shack looking tired but in one piece and decided that she was going to teach Dipper how to take care of his inner flame. Mabel would need it too but she was able to let things bounce off her easier than he did, he was so sensitive to the world that he had to try to keep closed off to protect himself. He needed to have life threaten him and be able to keep himself burning in spite of it. Who better to teach him that than her, when she had so much experience with fire? She wasn't kidding when she told him she was going to rethink everything, because this wacky night had showed her that all the weird supernatural biz that was rumored to happen in her town was actually REAL. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed any of it before (that though leaving a little unsettled because she was _good_ at noticing things) and wondered fleetingly if the reason for her family living so far out of town was because her father was aware and wanted his family away from it all. Whatever the case Wendy knew that the twins completed her friend group. They completed her life with all their light and energy.

That night she dreamed they were leading her on a path in a land she had never been to and told her that if she wanted to continue with them she had to close her eyes and could only open them when they arrived. She saw Mabel made of sparkling dust and Dipper with hands with fingers that twined around her wrist when he held it like roots and could hear distant chiming voices urging her to obey.

"They need you." They whispered. "The forest is dark. You must light their way".

She closed her eyes and saw behind her lids, the orange glow of an open flame and knew, somehow, it was her and let them guide her leaving warmth and adventure in their wake.


End file.
